Google has confirmed that executive Wael Ghonim is missing in Egypt and has not been seen since late Thursday.

"The safety of our employees is very important to Google, so if anyone has any information please call the following UK number: +44 20 7031 3008," Google said in a statement.

Demonstrations first broke out in Egypt on Jan. 25 as people took to the streets to protest failing economic policy, government corruption, and the nearly 30-year authoritarian rule of President Hosni Mubarak.

Ghonim, Google's head of marketing for the Middle East and North Africa, was in Cairo for a conference. Despite warnings from friends and family, Ghonim tweeted that he was going to the protests.

"Pray for #Egypt. Very worried as it seems that government is planning a war crime tomorrow against people. We are all ready to die #Jan25," said the last tweet sent from Ghonim's account.

In the past week, the protests have taken a violent turn, and Reuters said that at least 140 people have been killed.

Google's Cairo office has been temporarily closed for the sake of its employees' safety.

Late Monday, Google launched a tweet by phone system to help people on the ground in Egypt communicate with the rest of the world.

Others have banded together to help locate missing people in Egypt. After they heard about Ghonim, two men created a public spread sheet on Google Docs to help crowd-source information to help track people who have disappeared.

Leslie Horn joined the PCMag team as a news reporter in the fall of 2010. She covers a wide range of topics from digital media to the latest Apple rumor. After graduating with a degree in Magazine Journalism from the University of Missouri, she wrote for Out & About, a travel guide in coastal Maine. One of her favorite reporting experiences was covering the 2008 Olympics from Beijing. She travels every chance she gets, and recently spent time backpacking along the coast of Brazil. Though she...
More »